Neighbours [antikvár]

A MAN IS UP FOR SALE There was a notice board beside the entrance to the big canteen holding 600 people. Thus the toilers could keep in touch with one another. Neatly I had typed out the following advertisement for anyone interested to read: TO BE SOLD Owing to emigration One four—cathode-tube wireless set of Siemens make One 220 V electric cooker One dinner jacket made of English cloth, without trousers Furniture well preserved: a bed, table, some chairs — and many other items. Next day a little man came to see me in my office on behalf of the International Refugee Organization. He wore a blue uniform of American cut, with spectacles and a forage cap, jauntily placed just above his right eye. A cigare«^*^^ was dangling from his lower lip as he informally introduced himself. I was sincerely astonished that he should invite me to his flat. On urgent business, he said, that very evening. A pair of eyes were shining rather sadly, deeply set in his heavily lined face. I hurriedly promised to come. He was no stranger to me: we both worked in a long barracks building. Job seekers, both foreigners and native or refugee Germans, first had to report to me. Having ascertidned the category to which they belonged, I directed the job-seekers to him. There was a ruling according to which all vacant civilian jobs had to first offered to refugees from friendly countries. My man's job was to select someone from his list of the inmates of the refugee camp, or if no suitable person volunteered, pass on the job to the candidate of the local Labour Office.